DE 38 28 904 C2 discloses a plug connector for printed circuit boards, comprising contact elements which are electrically conductively connected to the conductor tracks on the printed circuit board and comprising a plug socket which is provided with mating contacts, where the contact elements are in the form of electrically conductive flat metal strips which are provided with angled strip portions to pass through receiving openings produced on the printed circuit board, are used to make contact with one of the conductor tracks, are electrically conductively connected to the conductor tracks and are fitted on an edge region of the printed circuit board, where the plug socket is provided with a receiving opening for the purpose of plugging it onto the edge region of the printed circuit board and with the mating contacts for the purpose of making contact with the metal strips, each metal strip having two angled resilient strip portions, provided with longitudinal slots and with lateral latching lugs for engaging behind the printed circuit board, for the purpose of putting it through and latching it into two passage holes which have been made in the region of the conductor track of the printed circuit board and serve as receiving openings. The drawback of the known plug connector is the relative complexity of making contact with the printed circuit board.
DE 100 29 649 C2 discloses a distributor connection module for telecommunications and data technology, comprising a housing in which input and output contacts for connecting lines or wires are arranged such that they are externally accessible, where the housing is designed to have a cavity which contains a printed circuit board having functional elements which is supported in the housing, the functional elements being arranged electrically between the input and output contacts, and the input contacts and the output contacts being arranged on opposite end faces of the housing. In this arrangement, the input and output contacts may be in the form of insulation displacement contacts which are each designed to have a fork-like contact which can be used to produce a force-fitting electrical connection for the functional elements. The printed circuit board has contact pads which are preferably on the top and bottom of the printed circuit board. These force-fitting connections are much more tolerant to production and assembly tolerances than solder connections. This means that contact can be made simultaneously with all of the insulation displacement contacts by latching the fork-like contacts onto the contact pads. In addition, this type of contact allows simple disassembly, for example if it is necessary to replace a faulty printed circuit board. To produce the distributor connection module, the printed circuit board with the functional elements is pushed into a first housing portion, and a second housing portion, carrying the input contacts, is latched on. To this end, the insulation displacement contacts are fixed to the housing, whereas the tuning fork contacts are free. Since large forces may arise when the insulation displacement contacts are subsequently connected up, it is additionally possible to latch a plastic-like retaining or support element onto the printed circuit board over the entire width of the printed circuit board, which fixes the fork-like contacts on the printed circuit board.
In addition, the printed document discloses the practice of arranging a respective externally accessible isolating contact between an input contact and an output contact, the isolating contact being arranged on the bottom of the printed circuit board. This results in a relatively complex assembly operation, since the isolating contacts need to be clamped between the printed circuit board and the housing.
DE 101 11 571 A1 discloses an electrical contact element for a plug connector arrangement. The contact element has an insulation displacement region at one end and a tuning fork contact at the other end. To increase the elasticity of the tuning fork contact, the contact-making arms are connected directly to the lower region of a lateral connecting piece of the double insulation piercing connecting devices and are then bent at an angle toward the center of the contact element, so that an extended spring movement results.
DE 38 06 263 A1 and DE 199 45 412 A1 each disclose a plug connector for printed circuit boards, comprising a number of contact elements, where the contact elements each have two connection ends, where one connection end is in the form of an insulation displacement contact for connecting wires and the other connection end is in the form of a tuning fork contact for making contact with pads on a printed circuit board, and a plastic housing into which the insulation displacement contacts of the contact elements can be inserted, where the insulation displacement contact and the tuning fork contact are arranged so as to be twisted with respect to one another and at least one lower edge of the insulation displacement contact is supported on the plastic housing, so that the contact elements are held captively in the plastic housing when connection forces act on the insulation displacement contacts, the plastic housing comprising at least one chamber-like region, and the tuning fork contacts being fully accommodated in the longitudinal direction by the plastic housing.